:: True blooded bloggers will appreciate this

Ex Nihilo says Starbucks and Bloggin are ruining his life. Here is a bit from his March 8th post, LOL. Have a look.

My new Typepad site, though more expensive, looked nice and I could post a picture of my ugly mug in the upper left-hand corner. I had tons of new features and posting was easier, but still, I have not achieved Volokh or Crescat fame, and it hurts!! Oh the pain!! Like a scorned lover I long for trackbacks, comments, and online debates, but I cannot beg. I now obsess over blogging etiquette and actually perk up when someone mentions a personal website in conversation over dinner. I use words like "Technorati" and "blog roll" (which is actually two words). The problem has only worsened, and now, like Walker Percy's Schuyler (before his marriage to Jane Smith--a note for all you Percy fans) I am outwardly confident but inwardly homeless, wandering sadly the confines of the blogosphere. My record of an active lifestyle has been crushed by the lure of e-fame.

And then, to add insult to injury, my school finally put in a Starbucks. This was the death blow! I now spend more on delectable vanilla cremes than I do on textbooks, and my car insurance premium is dwarfed by my caramel machiato tab. I have become addicted to the rich aroma of my breakfast blend and am no longer Stoicly satisified with the stale taste of Waffle House coffee that was my staple for three years. Though Starbucks satisfies me, it leaves me hungry for its heavenly satisfaction and like a junkie strapped for cash I now linger about the Starbucks stand fantasizing about my next post and the energy I might glean from another cup of rich espresso.

:: A postmodern seder

Last night at our gathering we did a seder dinner with a little different twist. We began with two worship songs and then for the kids asked about Moses life and how the Passover came about. We then let them look for a piece of unleavened bread hidden in the sanctuary of where we are meeting. The youngest, Gracelyn was the finder. We let kids go and have their own projects as we moved into a time of remembrance.

I spent some time talking about the various symbols of the seder dinner and some background of it from Exodus 12. We then moved into a time of remembrance at our worship spaces.

The creative space was where the unleavened bread was and the apples mixture. We wrote a letter to God there as we remembered the bondage of the Israelites and the bondage of our own sin before we came to Christ. We also remembered the hope we have in God coming as a deliverer in our lives. The offering station encouraged us to remember all the blessings God has given us. We remembered how God has freed us, delivered us, released us, and redeemed us as He did the children of Israel. The divine reading station was a reflection from Exodus 12 and from 1 Corinthians talking of Christ our sacrifice. The contemplative space had the bitter herbs and salt water, the parsley, and the juice to remember the tears of the children of Israel and then our own tears as we were in bondage to sin. At our prayer space we had time to pray for the deliverance of our own community, the Colony.

Then we came back to the community space and continued in worship. It was a night of God's visitation. I have not sensed the presence of the Spirit as strongly in a time. As I got back home God's presence was still lingering and when I woke this morning, again, the sense of His presence. It is good to remember, but not only to remember but to connect with Christ, our Passover.

:: Sacred and quiet space

Though a friends blog I ran across Sacred Space today and went through the daily prayer. Have you ever had a day when your soul is at a hectic pace. As I prayed through the meditation I found the peace of the Lord calming my soul. I recommend you try it.

:: Sunday night: the first official Encounter service

We had a total of sixteen people at our first Sunday night service. The presence of God was strongly among us. We began with two songs, released kids to go to their classes. We then went to a more intimate worship set. People did go to our various worship spaces during worship. We have a contemplative space set up. This night we had a pitcher of water, towels, and a basin set up with scriptures on washing ourselves and how the Lord cleanses our sins. Justin Blake hung out at the creative station during worship doing some drawing. We had a kneeling rail at the prayer station and a few stopped there for a moment.

We then went to the topic of the night which was stories. We invited people to share stories that involved their journey with Jesus. Daniel shared a story of going to a drug deal and meeting an old friend who he hadn't seen in years and years and a few months later she invited him to Hope Chapel where God encountered him. What are the chances of going to a drug deal and meeting an old friend who is going to invite you to church soon. We looked at the scripture in John 21 where John says is all the miracles of what Jesus had said and one were written they would fill all the books of the world. We talked about how this community is about telling His (Jesus Christ) story and telling how our lives are connected with His story.

We ended in praying for people. Abigail Branch came over to support us. We prayed for her and the Greenhouse, a church plant in Ft. Worth. Justin and Brandi Blake came over and we praying for God's encouragement on their new marriage. We had prayed that God would use us to encourage others and minister to them. This first time of large community gathering did that. Our prayer is that there will be a continued flow of people we can serve that God will direct us to.

:: Sunday day

As we have begun to get to know the Colony we have found a park where people hang out fairly frequently. At this park are two basketball areas, and one of these areas is a eight and a half foot goal. For those of you who are not a basketball players, an eight and a half foot goal means that short white men who can't jump can now dunk the ball.

Since our service is on Sunday night we decide that we will play basketball Sunday morning. Shane, Mark, myself, Chris, and a new friend of Chris' from the apartment complex, Jason go at it on this eight foot goal. We were a site. Shane dunks about the second play and rips the skin off three of his fingers. We looked like the walking wounded after about 12 games of 21. We did get to meet Tony who was out playing on another court. We continue to pray God connects us with people in the Colony.

:: Saturday

Saturday at lunch I wanted to connect Shane and Justin and Kelly a little better so I invite them to lunch. Shane recaps some dramatic financial blessings the Lord has brought to he and his wife in the past year. I love to hear stories of God's provision for people and how it promotes the kingdom of God. It was a good lunch, good mexican food, good fellowship.

:: Last week: Friday (joint habitat)

Friday Night
As part of our EXCHANGE weekend we had a combined meeting with Mars Hill at their Friday night Habitat. Habitat is a time when Mars Hill usually is discussing a book or topic. This night, Chris, Mark, Shane, Kelly, and Justin did some music and worship then Shane shared out of the gospel of John. Our conversation was about the glory of God and more specifically about How God gave it to Jesus and Jesus said he would give it to us. My friend Justin Nygren and his wife Kelly shepherd this group.

Afterwards a few of us went out and watched some of the NCAA tourney. We go to a local sports bar that has been recommended to us.
As we are sitting watching the game two very inebriated ladies sit down at our table across from Chris and I and begin a conversation. They find out that we are polite, but not acting like we are interested at all and not drinking anything buy tea and water and excuse themselves. I had really strong mixed feelings about this exchange. As the ladies were leaving one lady puts her hand on my head and says something in parting and it makes me really angry. That anger just built as I left. I was really offended that this lady, who must have seen my ring and known I am married is flirting with me. I had to really pursue this with the Lord because it didn't feel very Christlike to me to be that angry. I was wishing I would have had a woman at the well type of dialogue with this woman. As I prayed through it I understood more that these ladies were in great pain and were looking for love in all the wrong places. I pray that the Lord will speak encouragement to them and draw them to Him.

This story I think will bring some very interesting discussion in our small group.

:: Last week: Thursday

I enjoy blogging, so it has to be a busy week to keep me from being here. Last week was such a week. Thursday night we began a quarterly event for our community we are calling the EXCHANGE. This is a weekend where we are exchanging ideas with one another, we bring in someone outside of our community and have them exchange ideas with us, we try to join with another faith community and exchange with them, and most importantly seek God in a way that brings exchange between Himself and our community.

Thursday night my friend Shane Kuhn from Lubbock Texas joined us and facilitated a dialogue about faith from Hebrews 11. The main thread of the conversation was that God establishes markers in our lives and the lives of others that help encourage our faith. We need to remember these faith events in our lives to strengthen us to have faith in our current situations. We had our usual meal and worship also.

Chris came up with a funny analogy at our meal about the three guys that are in his head. He said there was a fast guy that retrieves information. So let's say when a person named George walks up, fast guy runs to the files and brings back the info. that this is George. Then there is the smart guy who knows how to be cool and make good conversation. Finally there is the dumb guy. Sometimes when fast guy and smart guy are on break, he gets to take over. In this case let's say George is walking up and fast guy in not there to retrieve information and smart guy isn't there to act cool. You end up saying something that may be a cross of information like Hi-Ow your doing? This is a cross between Hi and How are you doing which the dumb guy couldn't decide on. This analogy seemed to be used all weekend.

:: New tags

These new buttons are compliments of Kalsay Consulting Group. Make you own here.

:: God is not respecter of culture

Sunday morning I was invited to speak at Church on the Hill. Church on the Hill is a growing Foursquare church in Hillsboro Texas. It was an amazing morning. These people were so warm and friendly to my family and a few of the Resonance team who came in support of us.

I am amazed at how you can find the presence of the living God among so many diverse cultures of people. This morning I remembered being in Victoria, Mexico, worshiping with the saints there, and experiencing the presence of the almighty God, I remembered being in Ireland amidst Irish folk and Nigerian immigrants and knowing that same presence of God, and this morning here we are in Hillsboro in east Texas and the presence of God is here. In my life I've worshiped with the most country people you can think of, those that make chicken fried steak that melts in your mouth. I've worshiped with the most postmodern group you can think of where it was pitch dark except for candles all about the floor. I have found an amazing thing, God is no respecter of cultures, no respecter of status. Where there are people who open their hearts toward him, even in all their immaturities He shows up to fellowship with them.

These folks in Hillsboro reminded me of the small towns in Texas where I grew up. They were polite, friendly, and warm. Best of all though they loved to worship. The room that held about 100 was full. It was not only full of people, it was full of people who came to meet with God. And that was the worship song that began our time with the Lord, "I'm here to meet with you" written by By the Tree. You got the feeling that these people were not at an event but were at a family gathering. One of the most noticeable aspects of this is that 20 minutes after the service there were still people hanging out and talking with one another.

I spoke on the path of our calling. The gist of what I was saying is that our calling is not a discovery event but a journey of obedience. It is an adventurous journey. There are enemies along the way (Satan and his minions) that try to thwart our true journey. I tried to encourage people that on both Moses and Peters journey their were lessons that led them to grow in humility. Numbers 12:3 says that Moses was the most humble man. And in 1 Peter 5 Peter challenges us to be "clothed in humility". Those that God uses are those that are willing to walk humbly with their God, that means learning to lay down self effort. It is interesting that in his self effort Moses couldn't even handle one Egyptian without making a mess of things, but God in the right timing was able to wipe out the whole Egyptian army without any glitches.

One final note of God's faithfulness, we have been praying for a video projector. We believe it is important for creating an environment where people, especially this generation, can experience God. We didn't have funds for that. The folks at Hillsboro took up an offering at the end of their service and gave us $1000 to buy a projector. This was a generous gift.

:: 2nd March Fuel

Last night we were treated to homemade enchiladas from Kimberly with help from Daniel. Nothing like a good meal to encourage lively discussion. Dinner conversations ranged from high school football stories and homecomings to new cars to outlet malls to who has the most clothes in their closets, all those good interesting conversations.

After dinner we jumped into 1 Peter, we began by sharing about various times of trial we had gone through. There was so much shared, I felt like we could have gone on for hours, yet in respect of time and people getting up the next day to go to work we wound down by 10:00.

Trials we talked about were hard church situations, relationships with people, death to those close to us, times of transition that were hard, etc.
In times like these we are reminded by Peter to set our minds on the living hope we have in Christ. We truly are strangers on this planet, awaiting fulfillment of a greater hope. We have tasted of grace here, we have tasted our inheritance as children of God, but the future holds a glorious fulfillment of our salvation and all it contains.

We began dialoging about our small gathering that could quickly be too big to be a small gathering. We value small groups of people gathering for the fellowship, the availability to get to know one another, the opportunity for spiritual gifts to be expressed. It is the fiber true community is built out of. We talked about not having rigid guidelines such as: when a group hits 12 people they have to split. On the other side of things we talked about how we needed structure to function. In the end we committed to keeping a listening ear to the Lord on these matters and ask what seems best to Him for the situation.

For our own core group the discussion went two ways. There was concern that the core team would lose continuity if we opened our small gathering to others. The concern the other way was that if we didn't open this group that new people wouldn't be as easily intertwined within the community. There was some consensus that as the small gathering grows we may need to have the core team to branch out and be facilitators at other small gatherings and that our core team would maybe meet together on a monthly basis rather than weekly.

This might seem trivial to someone reading this. You might think "Hey have you looked at the local Christian bookstore, there are hundreds of books on small groups, find a method and go with it." For us this is not trivial though. This is the journey we are on, not the journey others are on. That doesn't mean we are foolish enough not to consider the wisdom or lessons others have learned, but it does mean we want to allow our journey to unfold. We want to be on the journey together and these matters are important. They are important not just for the particular method we find to have small gatherings (small groups) but the process is important for the community of faith we are in. The process is about us being community and sharing our lives with one another. It is about the gifts of creativity coming out of people and allowing people to have input and value in the conversation. As I think about it more, this is a community conversation. Certainly we are seeking God's will as our ultimate end, but the case I would make is that God's will is found in the community of faith more than individuals seeking God on an individual level. I believe the voice of God speaks to us not for our individual gain. The voice of God has inherent in it a building up of the saints. So when the Lord speaks to you, it is for the benefit of the kingdom of God and the community of God. I can see this could quickly become a paper rather than a post so I'll stop here for now.

:: Trading spaces

As we plan on our large group gatherings, we have been talking in terms of space for the place we are meeting. The space we have found to gather fits what we wanted. It is a Lutheran church with all the icons of the Christian faith within. Within that space we plan on dedicating spaces in the sanctuary there to a variety of expressions of worshiping God. We plan on having a space that is focused on prayer, a space that is a contemplative space, a creative space, and a community space. These spaces are identified so that people can worship and experience God is various ways as we gather. Our ultimate goal is creating environments where people can experience Christ.

I am excited to see how this methodology develops. We understand that the ancient truths of Scripture found in relationship with Christ are the same yesterday, today, and for all times but the containers that communicate those truths change. We want to experiment with those containers.

:: Passion bloopers on script

Here are a couple of bloopers from the Passion of Christ.

Christ, shackled to a stone, is being scourged by Roman soldiers. Blood runs down his gory back. His pain is palpable.

Jesus: [writhes in pain, hands shaking]

[Cell phone rings.]

Jesus: [hands shake furiously]

[Cell phone rings. Caviezel looks up, sheepish.]

Roman soldier: Jim? That you?

Jesus: Yeah.

[Cell phone rings.]

Soldier: Want me to get it?

Jesus: Yeah.

[Roman soldier gingerly reaches into Caviezel’s blood-soaked loincloth, pulls out phone and opens it, then holds the phone to Caviezel’s ear.]

Off Camera: [laughter]

Jesus: Hey, Mom.


via: tallskinnykiwi

:: The Art of Not Getting Embarrased at a Baptist Church

Andrew Jones had me laughing hard as I read his post on The Art of Not Getting Embarrased at a Baptist Church. Coming from a Southern Baptist upbringing I really could picture what he was saying. Here is a teaser:

- Don't drink the coffee, it comes from a large steel device from the early 20th Century called an "Urn" Go for the tea instead.

I'm thinking I could probably come up with an as equally funny set of ideas for not getting embarresed at a Charismatic church or an emerging church or . . .

:: The Passion of The Christ: an Christian artist vs an Agnostic writer

Take a look at the debate of Christian artist Peter Howson and agnostic writer Muriel Gray as they lock horns over Mel Gibson’s The Passion Of The Christ in an article from the Sunday Herald a Scottish paper.

:: Research on blogging Sociology

Read Wired Magazines article: Warning: Blogs Can Be Infectious.

:: Blogging to Utopia

Read Blogging to Utopia from the Austin Chronicle.

Here is the lead. very interesting
When the people at Pyra Labs developed a Web tool in 1999 that allowed the user to create, from any Net connection, a page that could include links, graphics, and text, the news was overshadowed by seemingly bigger Web stories: notably, Napster and the monstrously hyped idea of WebTV. Napster is history. And when was the last time someone enthused about WebTV? But blogs have entered the mainstream big time.

:: A Chernobyl Ride

A young Russian rides through the area of Chernobyl and documents her journey with pics at My Chernobyl Ride. This was really interesting link via Jordon Cooper.

:: First Fuel in March

We have shifted our paradigm of Fuel for March. We understand that we are going to be having a more open and public gathering on Sunday nights so our time at Fuel is being geared more like our vision for a small gathering. We have adopted the life - change bible study series and are walking through first Peter. Our format will be eating dinner, having few anouncements, a short time of worship, then going into a group discussion of 1 Peter. Each person has an assignment to work through 1 Peter that week. Every other week we break up in gender groups to discuss and pray together.

Tonight, we discussed our value of having the word of God as a foundation of our community. It is the centering piece in our community. Humanity is frail and we can't lean on it. But God's word is not frail, throughout history God's word has given strength and focus to followers of Christ. We recognize that strength is beyond an intellectual understanding of the Word's contents. There is something of the grace of God being given as we humbly read his word. And as someone mentioned last night, it's not so much we read and interact with the word as it is the word read's and interacts with us. We don't want to wander away from who God is calling us to be. We want to be the story that God is telling to our city. We believe the word's centrality will lend to that.

The other side of this coin to us is being open to the directing of God through the Holy Spirit. Without the Word's foundation we could drift into a fanatical emotionalism as we are open to direction through the Holy Spirit and we don't want emotionalism. We do want though to be hearers of God's voice. We realize we are strangers and aliens here on the planet. We are people of the kingdom and want to march to the beat of the kingdoms drums.

This was altogether a good night, a setting of foundations night. The journey is unfolding.

:: Emerging Church Insight

Todd Hunter and Andrew Jones have some great insight into the journey of postmoderns at Answers from the other side.

A portion from Todd

The Church and the Spirit:
I see a deconstructive reaction in the alternative church landscape to the work of the Holy Spirit. Having spent a great deal of time around classical Pentecostals, Charismatics and Third-Wavers, I can see why. But again, we are forced to ask if we are throwing out too much baby with the water. I have to come to see that the contemporary church must come to grip with issues of power and authority: who has it, how it is shared, how it is exercised with integrity, ethics and holiness. “Jesus is the head of the church” could be marked “True” on any theological pop-quiz. The same is true for “The Holy Spirit is the continuing presence of Christ in the church”. We move from theological lip service to action by actually repenting for grieving the Holy Spirit. Remember, he can be grieved as easily by being ignored as by bizarre behaviors. Then we invite Him into our communities of faith, we prayerfully listen with the intent of developing a conversational relationship with God—like the ones people had in the Bible. Last we take appropriate risks, in faith, that like a child learning to walk or speak, God will be with us to train and encourage us. Experiential religion is the Biblical norm and the only kind of religion that will fly in post-modernity.

A portion from Andrew

Check Out New Media.
This is the area where the values of emerging culture are most accurately depicted. It does not do much good to read Christian apologists from the 90's summarizing French philosophers from the 70's who were trying to explain the surrealist painters from the 20's. That is not the most direct route to understand us, and can actually be quite misleading. Check out the new media instead. In the 1990's, I suggested churches look at the postmodern subcultures and the rave scene to find emerging values and dynamics. But now i say new media. Take a look at the renaissance of writing that is happening in our current world of post-post-literacy. Christian bloggers (theoblogians) are a part of this movement. Charlie Wear's blog is a good place to start.

:: The Passion of Christ: a view from the arts

Russell Hittinger and Elizabeth Lev review the Passion from the standpoint of the arts here.

:: the Passion

1 Cor 2:7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

A group of us went to see the passion of Christ last night. I had a variety of expectations from reading internet articles, seeing Mel Gibsons interview with Diane Sawyer and hearing personal experiences of the movie. I'll have to say I was pleasantly surprised with the result.
For me the movie met my expectations and went beyond. I was moved by the artistry of the script and filming. I thought characters fit their roles well. Mary the mother, Mary Magdalene, John, Peter, Judas, Pilate, Simon the Cyrenian, Satan, and Jesus all fit the part well.

For me this movie wasn't an experience of evaluation it was an experience of expanding my own heart in knowing about my Lord. Stories from the bible came to life for me. Color was added to what seemed like black and white words. I have a much better understanding of how all the events of that last day transpired and were woven together.

I was moved to tears as Mary flashes back to a scene of her running to help the boy Yeshua who has fallen and from that gets the courage to run to Jesus and tell him she was there by him. My heart was stirred by Simon the Cyrenian who unwillingly gets nominated to help Jesus carry the cross and on the short journey is impacted. I wondered if I am willing to help Jesus carry his cross in the world today?

I was touched deeply by the Passion of Christ. I pray God will continue to draw my own mind from the many distractions of living in this world and to the world where the mystery of God has been shown in the Son of God being willing to suffer incredible humiliation, pain and worst of all separation from his own Father for me and all those around me.

Looking back on the film I relate with the second thief on the cross who said: " . . . for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong. Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." I recognize that justice says I die for my sins, yet a man who has done nothing wrong died in my place so that I could come into the kingdom of He and His father.

John 15:13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.